Cobb County’s consistently high test scores reflect the success of the district’s approach to maximizing student achievement through assessment and testing. The Standardized Testing Program includes both curriculum-based tests, which show how students compare to an established standard, and norm-referenced tests, which show how well students are doing in comparison to other students across the country.

The district attributes the high marks to a concentrated focus on improvement across the system by identifying specific areas for improvement and implementing changes made in the ways teachers approach the instructional process. Some important improvements the district has made include the integration of technology with classroom instruction, an increasing emphasis on using test data to diagnose student needs, and staff development designed to support teachers in learning new ways to instruct students.

“As school principals and their staff members get better at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the students in their schools, they are able to make changes more quickly and can see the results through assessments,” explains Superintendent Joe Redden. “By assessing students’ performances, we are able to provide teachers, schools and the district with information on what we need to do to best support student learning. Testing is one way to assist us in ensuring that our students get a quality education through the Cobb County School District.”

The following are summaries of the testing performed in Cobb County during the 2001-02 school year. For a complete listing of test results, including results by specific schools, click here.

Iowa Tests of Basic Skills
Administered to first grade students across Cobb County, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) is a norm-referenced test designed to assess students’ skills in both reading and math. Scores for 2002 show that Cobb students exceeded the national percentile rank score of 50 by 25 points in reading and 12 points in mathematics, scoring at the 75th percentile rank in reading and at the 62nd percentile rank in math.

First graders in the spring of 2002 posted an overall grade equivalent score of 2.2 in reading. This score indicates that students were more than five months above the national average of 1.7. In recent years, the district has focused on literacy at the early grades by providing a number of reading programs and materials. The ITBS results may be an indicator that the district’s efforts are paying off. The district continues to promote reading as a key for long-term success for its students.
 

Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford 9)
The Stanford 9 Achievement Test (SAT 9) is a norm-referenced test designed to assess students’ skills in the areas of reading, language, mathematics, science, social studies, listening, spelling, using information, and thinking skills.

Students in grades 2, 4, 6 and 7 topped the national average in every academic area tested by the 2002 SAT 9. Cobb students exceeded the national average of 50th percentile rank in all academic areas, and produced averages ranging from the low 50s to mid 60s. Language results proved the most impressive with fourth graders scoring 64, sixth graders scoring 62, and seventh graders scoring 60, on average. District percentile scores showed improvement over last year in nearly every core academic area, including math where total scores improved between 2 and 4 percentile points from 2001 to 2002. Percentile scores range from 1 to 99.
 

Criterion-Referenced Competency Test
A state-developed test, the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) is a curriculum-based assessment that measures how well students are learning the Georgia Revised Quality Core Curriculum. District scores for the CRCT, administered in the spring of 2002, show that Cobb students in grades one through eight are learning the curriculum better than their peers across the state with students surpassing state mean scores in all academic areas and at every grade level. The county also had a higher percentage of students meeting or exceeding the standards than other districts in Georgia.

Students in grades one through eight participated in the Reading, English/Language Arts, and Mathematics portions of the CRCT. For the first time, students in grades three through eight also took Science and Social Studies portions of the test.

Georgia Middle Grades Writing Assessment
Cobb eighth graders showed all-around improvement on the Middle Grades Writing Assessment (MGWA) in 2002, and continue to exceed the average scores of their counterparts across the state and in the metro area. Cobb students had an average scale score of 362, compared to an average score of 359 for students in metro Atlanta and 358 statewide.

Administered in January 2002, the MGWA measures style, sentence formation, content and grammar, and is scored within a range of 300 to 400. A score of 368 or higher falls under the Exceeds Target category, which is the highest possible category indicating a students’ superior performance on the test. An impressive 26 percent of Cobb eighth graders scored in the Exceeds Target category, up from 21 percent in 2001. That compares to 17 percent of students in the metro area and just 13 percent statewide who qualified for the highest category.
 

Georgia High School Graduation Test
As part of the statewide testing program, 11th graders are administered the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) each year. Tested in four subject areas - English/language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science - students must pass each section as one requirement for earning a Georgia high school diploma.

GHSGT results for 2002 showed a marked improvement as Cobb students improved in every subject area compared to last year’s results. In addition, Cobb 11th graders scored higher than their peers statewide and in metro Atlanta in all subjects. Scores range from 400-600, with 500 as a passing score.

In the English/language arts subject area, the district reported a 98 percent passing rate, with several schools reporting a 100 percent passing rate including Harrison, Lassiter, McEachern, Pope and Sprayberry high schools. Cobb’s average score for mathematics was 545, which is five points higher than the metro Atlanta average and topped the state average by nine points. Students also performed well in the content areas of social studies and science with 93 percent and 88 percent passing respectively.

Results in the Pass Plus category are perhaps the biggest indicators of Cobb students’ academic excellence. The Pass Plus category recognizes individual students whose scores far exceed the minimum passing score — a distinction meant to challenge all high school students by adding a higher standard of performance. System wide, 72 percent of Cobb students scored in the Pass Plus range for English/language arts with five schools including Harrison, Lassiter, Pope, Sprayberry, and Walton boasting more than 75 percent of students at this top level. Pass Plus performance in mathematics was more than 75 percent at Lassiter, Pope, Sprayberry, and Walton high schools.

Core Challenge Tests
The Core Challenge Tests assess how much Cobb County high school students have learned in a particular subject. Students are tested twice - once at the start of a course and again at the end - in eight courses including Algebra I, Geometry, Ninth Grade Literature/Composition, American Literature/Composition, Biology, Physical Science, Economics, and U.S. History.

Scores, called gains, represent the progress students make from the beginning of
a course to the end of a course, and overall increases in scores ranged from 18-36 points. Cobb students showed the highest gains in math, with increases of 35 points in Algebra I and 36 points in Geometry. In recent years, Cobb County educators have made a concentrated effort to improve math through curriculum alignment, new math textbooks, and the use of other resources. The high marks on the Core Challenge Tests may indicate that the district’s efforts are working.

Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT)
The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) measures how well a student has learned the skills needed to succeed in college and is required for admission to most colleges and universities. The SAT is divided into two academic areas - verbal and mathematics components. The verbal section measures a student’s ability to use vocabulary and comprehend complex reading passages while the mathematics section measures arithmetic reasoning along with geometry and algebra skills. The highest attainable score for the SAT is 1600 - 800 for the verbal section and 800 for math.

Cobb’s graduating seniors for 2002 posted an impressive average total score of 1032, topping their national peers by 12 points and their statewide peers by 52 points. On the verbal section of the test, Cobb students gained two points over 2001 scores while both national and state averages dropped by two points. Cobb’s average verbal score of 515 was 11 points higher than the national average of 504 and 26 points higher than the state mark of 489. In math, increases were even more dramatic with Cobb students scoring a five-year high of 517, a score that placed them ahead of their national peer group by one point and 26 points ahead of their Georgia peers who scored an average of 491. These results are even more impressive when considering that a much higher percentage of Cobb students takes the SAT than statewide or nationally.

American College Testing Program (ACT)
The American College Testing Program (ACT) is another test used to predict a student’s potential for success in their freshman year of college. The ACT is divided into four testing components - English, math, reading, and science. The ACT is scored in a range of 1 to 36.

For testing year 2002, Cobb students outscored their peers on average statewide and nationally in all subject areas. Cobb reported an average score of 20.9 on the ACT Math test, compared to the national average of 20.6 and the state average of 19.8. In Reading, Cobb students averaged 21.6, which put them ahead of national and state averages. Cobb students also outscored their peers in the subject areas of English and Science Reasoning. Cobb County’s average composite score was 21.1 out of a possible total of 36. Cobb’s average exceeded the national composite score of 20.8 and the Georgia composite score of 19.8.

.	1998		1999		2000		2001		2002
.	SAT	ACT	SAT	ACT	SAT	ACT	SAT	ACT	SAT	ACT
Nation	43%	36%	43%	35%	44%	37%	45%	38%	46%	39%
Georgia	64%	16%	63%	16%	64%	18%	63%	19%	65%	20%
COBB	82%	22%	83%	20%	79%	20%	82%	24%	83%	24%